It started with a miss 40-yard miss on the first drive. Just a moment earlier, he drilled the 35-yard version negated by a false-start flag. It was his third miss in the last five attempts. The previous two misfires hit the upright including a potential game-winner at Mississippi State. Fittingly, a touchdown catch by the freshman Smith also won that game in the closing seconds.

Perhaps lost in it all were Pappanastos' two second-half makes that kept the Tide competitive. His 43-yarder late in the third quarter pulled it to 20-10 Georgia after the two traded interceptions.

Then with 9:24 left, Pappanastos made it 20-13 with a 30-yard kick on the same field goal he'd face in the closing seconds.

After tying it with a fourth-down touchdown with 3:49 left, Alabama got the ball back with 2:55 left. It took a conservative approach to the following drive, running it with the quarterback on five of the six final plays to put Pappanastos in the middle of the field for the 36-yard kick into the only section of Mercedes-Benz Stadium dominated by Alabama fans.

"A lot of cool things were flashing through my head," Pappanastos said, flashing back to his shot at immortality. "About all the times me and my dad kicked in the yard and stuff.

Punter and field goal holder JK Scott also brings a remarkable sense of calm with the special teams unit. He recalled the potential game-winning kick amid the on-field celebration.

"I would say it was pretty smooth, most of all, except it was a little quick," Scott said. "Being a little quick just throws the rhythm off a little bit."

Scott's message to Pappanastos had nothing to do with the physical aspect of his last kick.

"You try to avoid the emotions as much as you can and really talk about if he's going a little quick or whatever," Scott said. "Really, that's how we talk about it. You can't get emotional in a game like this as a placekicker."

And there was no time to linger in that moment. Overtimes often come down to the kicker and Georgia's Rodrigo Blankenship made things no easier with his 51-yard field goal to open the extra period.

Pappanastos said he wasn't worried about having the pressure to extend the season if called upon after that.

"I would have been ready," he said. "The confidence was there. I just had to correct the hook that I had been battling for a couple weeks. You have to be ready. That's football. At the end of the day, you have to persevere. You have to keep doing your thing."

JK Scott found comfort in the chaos, too.

"I don't know what it was, I found this peace," said Scott, also a senior who's getting married Saturday. "It was the Lord. Because it was a peace beyond, 'Oh, we're going to make this kick.' It's a peace that was, make or miss, this kick does not define me."

A first-down sack made things even more daunting on Alabama's first offensive play of overtime. It got a little louder in the de facto Bulldog home stadium.

Then, a stunned silence for everyone not wearing crimson.

Tagovailoa to Smith became the moment once penciled in for Pappanastos from 36.

In a flash, college football was over for the double graduate kicker. The night of extreme highs and momentary lows ended in a peak.

Pappanastos wasn't faking his smile at his relatively quiet corner of the Alabama locker room 51 minutes after midnight in Atlanta.

"I honestly had a lot of emotions -- kind of crying, a lot of laughing," Pappanastos said. "A lot of hugging. A lot of different things going on, man. But at the end of the day, we won. I'm so happy for my teammates. To go out as my last game, JK's last game, to go out like this ... I don't know man. We came in wanting to have fun.

"It was a challenge for me at times for me at least, but in the end, I've had a good night."

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande.